Konta continues progress at Australian Open

Johanna Konta followed her sublime win against Venus Williams with a proficient 6-2, 6-3 victory over Zheng Saisai of China on Thursday to put her through to the third round of the Australian Open.

Before Konta’s shock win against Williams, who is world number 10, she had never won a match in the main draw at the Australian Open.

Eastbourne’s Konta is ranked 47th in the world, and is the British No.1 while defeated opponent Zheng, is ranked 83rd - 36 places below Konta.

Her second round win against Zheng was a solid performance throughout. Straight from the off, Konta went 3-1 ahead due to her aggressive returning. Konta went on to win the first set in 37 minutes.

Konta had a shaky start to her second set, but she held fast, and some intense groundstroke shots allowed her to break for 3-1. She did eventually drop serve, to love, while serving for the match at 5-1. Nonetheless, she secured victory in one hour and 22 minutes.

She said: “There were definitely some nerves at the end. I was very happy I was able to keep it together, there’s so much tension out there. I’m just happy I was able to deal with it the best I could and come through.”

Konta will face Czech player Denisa Allertova in the next round. Allertova is ranked 66 in the world and knocked Konta out of the French Open in the first round last year. It was a match that featured the longest women’s tie break at Grand Slam level as Allertova eventually won the breaker 19-17 and took the match 7-6, 4-6, 6-2.

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